My homebrew-setting D&D 3.5 arctic adventure, Hands of the Iron Queen, is in need of a couple new players. This game has plenty of combat and action and stuff but is also heavily RP-centric, so if you want to play please enjoy reading and story and traveling and stuff. Read up on setting info here, and please try to fit your character in with the setting.

I appreciate well-thought-out backgrounds, and I will even try to include any plot hooks in your background into the game somehow. I believe in making the adventure personal for every character in some way or another.

**Warning: Characters with generic, non-setting-specific backgrounds will be rejected outright regardless of how awesome everything else is. I also am not a fan of reused characters from other campaigns. I'm also not nuts about Homebrew stuff because a lot of it is a bit too "out there" for me, unless it is well built/balanced and makes sense. (I know, kinda hypocritical considering everything else in D&D, but you know what I mean.)

I'm open to any LA +0 race. If you have a really strong case for using an LA +1 race I will listen, but I will be biased toward LA +0 races. However if you're willing to work with me to nerf some aspect of an LA+1 race to make it LA+0 I am willing to work with you on that. Also if you feel like it and have the time, skim through some of the adventure threads, particularly the Prologue thread, to get a feel for what's going on and who your comrades are.

The game is played by 2 groups of four. The other three in Group 1 are a male human barb/rogue who will be handling roguish tasks and can hold his own in combat; a male human ranger, who is focusing more on melee and plans (IIRC) on going into a knightly prestige class; and a male human wizard who specializes in conjuration.

As you can see, group 1 is lacking in divine/healing types. (The old character was a bard built for healing, and the character before that [who never saw play] was a dwarf cleric.) This group is made up of more civilized characters who are comfortable in cities and that sort of thing. A hardcore divine type would be more useful than one who dabbles, as there will be times when it might be necessary to heal disease/poison/negative energy damage and stuff.

The other characters in Group 2 are an orc barbarian/spirit shaman, a neanderthal ranger, and a human fighter/rogue. As you can see the group lacks any arcane power but truth be told I can work around that. Make what you want but I do believe that this group has quite enough martial power, so martial-focused characters might be a bit redundant. The character being replaced for Group 2 was a druid, but don't let that color what you decide to build.

**I don't really want fighters or other primary martial characters...both groups have enough of that. Some martial power is ok but these new characters should be able to fulfill other roles too that the groups are lacking. So, specifically I am not looking for fighters, rangers, knights and others of that type as current players fulfill that. Duskblades etc. are ok since they can do other things too. Just don't want a party to have all physical and no magical prowess.

Both groups are currently traveling to their respective missions. Group 1 is heading to an ancient ruin in the middle of a huge inhospitable swamp to investigate what is going on with an archaeology/research team that went silent. Group 2 is trudging overland to a small frontier city to try and straighten out why barbarians and other native North inhabitants are attacking more frequently.

Character creation rules:
- Roll 4d6 6 times, drop lowest, reroll 1's. 32 point buy if your total stat mods are +3 or less or if you don't roll even one score of at least 15.
- starting level is 5, with 10,000 gp for starting equipment.
- Also, I won't be enforcing XP costs for item creation. Gold cost and time cost remain the same though.
- 2 flaws are allowed.
- Available sources include most anything published for 3.5 except: no psionics, no Eberron stuff (Even if something from Eberron that was later included in a Monster Manual), and no ToB. If you absolutely want something from Eberron or some specific setting, run it by me and if it's possible to de-setting-ify it, I might consider it. (However I put my foot down at no Changelings and no Warforged.)

I will allow 3.0 sources as long as it wasn't explicitly updated for 3.5. I don't want the Vow of Poverty feat from Book of Exalted Deeds though. In my experience it tends to cause more trouble than it's worth.
** I draw heavily from Frostburn and Stormwrack for this setting, and anything from those two books is definitely accepted/encouraged.
- Any alignment except evil. If you pick Chaotic Neutral I expect you to have a good reason for it, and at the first whiff of you using it to justify being "Chaotic Stupid" I'll make you change it. Also I *will* have people change their alignments if they grossly stray from them.

By the closing date I would like everything to be done including character sheets. The adventure is underway and as soon as you start you might be using equipment and rolling dice so I'd like whomever I choose to be prepared.

This is not a hack and slash game: there will be challenging combats, but not constantly around every corner; you will be RPing with your fellow group members a lot. If you're not into character development, roleplaying, relationships and stuff, this might not be the game for you.

Game Description:

The frozen isles of Drenheim in the icy northern seas of the world Akuroth have been somewhat calm for centuries. But now, trouble is brewing in the land of eternal frost.

Human and orcish barbarian tribes are showing increased signs of restlessness and unease; the beasts of the mountains and forests are becoming more aggressive and being seen closer and closer to civilized land; and even the peoples of the icy waters are chafing beneath turbulent waves, and sailors aboard frostbound ships report increased sightings of dangerous underwater beasts.

While the native souls of the north grow uneasy, more cultured inhabitants of the north seem unaware of any impending danger; except for Queen Eisa, ruler of the city of Scurdaeg, the greatest bastion of civilization in the north. The shrewd and insightful queen has feelers throughout the land, and her keen intuition tells her one thing: danger is coming. Danger, and change.

The queen has put out a call to any brave souls to act as her agents to discover the source of this lurking threat. However, even she isn't safe; treachery runs deep in the wild north, and not even her city nor her court are safe from it. For there are those who would oppose her efforts to bring law and order to the free but dangerous lands, ruled only by the biting north wind.

Who will step forward? What brave souls will act as the hands of the Iron Queen?

Given that he is looking for one char, applying with a Bard into a pool of Bards might mean you don't stand out, but otherwise doesn't really lower your chances since you will be competing against them either way.

KillerK - thanks, I'll get to it. The thing I'm wondering about most though is where a goblin might fit in in this setting. I figured Icedawn Mountains would be cool (I'm going Air Goblin rather than, say, Snow Goblin, so a high altitude region makes sense). If you have any ideas on how to integrate him into the setting a bit more, though, I'd be happy to hear them.

Silver, I don't think the spirit shaman had any particular plan in mind with spell use, although since he is also part barbarian and uses a big flaming axe, buffs and self buffs play a role in his spells. He is a very heavy hitting melee-er.

The character being replaced was a human druid with frost giant bloodline. Just FYI. Without him there's not as much spell power in the group, just the barb/shaman.

I did receive some arcane character apps in the first round for group 2, but it ended up being divine-focused and arcane-starved because I ended up just liking the characters I picked the best.

I did receive some arcane character apps in the first round for group 2, but it ended up being divine-focused and arcane-starved because I ended up just liking the characters I picked the best.

Personally I'm of the opinion that that just adds to the challenge - and the fun. If people have to buy magic items or visit resident spellcasters to get their stuff done, fine.

Would you like us to restrict our applications to only one of the groups? I feel my character at least will be more appropriate for group 2; he'd be capable of some healing, actually, but the "less civilised" group feels more his thing.

TheFred, yes I expect each application to be for only one of the groups. I won't consider one application for both groups. If someone wants to make 2 characters to be considered for each group, that's fine. Mostly because both groups are so different that the same character probably wouldn't be suitable for consideration for both groups.

And yes, TheFred, I do agree with you to a point about the fun/challenge aspect. And truth be told, Group 2's mission has a much more earthy/divine/forces-of-nature feel to it, and not so much a heady/intellectual/logical feel to it, so a smarty-pants wizard might feel a little bewildered/out of his element, anyway. But that could be fun for them, too.

It doesn't make anything harder for me, really. Yeah I would probably be likely to pick only 1, unless they both happened to be outstanding. If a player wants to create two applications, it's no skin off my nose.

Basically the idea, I have for a build for group One, would to put a twist on the undead. Using a Cleric, instead of the usual evil skeleton master , more of a Good aligned, My ancestors are coming to help me because I ask nicely and I use my magic to give them a form.